Local musicians to play fundraiser for Mindy’s Memory Primate Sanctuary

The Lily Guild and Terry “Buffalo” Ware Fundraiser for Mindy’s Memory Primate Sanctuary in Newcastle The Chouse, 717 W. Boyd in Norman 3-7 p.m. Sunday Donations will be taken at the door

Brain lesions, Ebola virus, stroke, plague and drug-induced seizures. That was the life 55 long-tailed macaque monkeys left behind when In Defense of Animals organized a mass primate relocation in July from an insolvent toxicology lab to habitats throughout the country. Eight of those monkeys were taken in by Mindy’s Memory Primate Sanctuary in Newcastle.

Robert Ingersoll, Mindy’s Memory board president, said the 12-year-old sanctuary rarely takes in more than five monkeys in any given year, so absorbing eight new residents has had an immediate financial impact on the group.

In response, Norman’s Chouse, 717 W. Boyd, will host a fundraiser from 3-7 p.m. Sunday, where The Lily Guild and Terry “Buffalo” Ware are slated to perform. A silent auction will feature artwork, local restaurant meals, signed copies of Elizabeth Hess’ book “Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would be Human,” and a behind-the-scenes tour of the sanctuary.

Ingersoll said Mindy’s Memory currently houses 88 monkeys, half of which were saved from labs, while the other half were former pets. Because of insurance and safety reasons, the sanctuary is closed to the public, so Ingersoll said it has to rely on private contributions to keep the facility running.

“It costs a lot of money to build an enclosure,” he said. “There’s also a warming house and the other things you have to do in order to prepare for eight monkeys who will live out their lives in the sanctuary.”